Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,90

of power with someone like him.

“I need a night, Shot.” I made sure he could hear the exhaustion in my tone.

It took a moment, though he eventually nodded in agreement. I should have felt like I’d won this round, but for some reason I had the distinct impression we’d both lost.

Chapter 19

Shot

Presley’s one night had turned into several.

The stars had aligned to keep us from sitting down and talking things out. She’d gotten called in to oversee a triple homicide case coming out of Austin, and I got tied up in club business, which pulled me away from Loveless for a few days. I came back feeling more tired than I ever had in my life, and I realized how healing Presley’s serenity in my life had become. I was planning on camping out in her living room until we patched things up, but before I could even get my footing back from the last ride, Case called and told me it was time to put our plan to get Ashby to confess in motion. He had the surveillance set up and wanted to take advantage of the fact Presley was busy and less likely to stumble into the middle of the setup.

So I called the woman I hated most in the world and pulled the trigger on ending the threat hanging over Presley’s head once and for all.

Only things hadn’t gone right from the start.

It took several calls to finally get Ashby to agree to meet. It felt like she was playing with me, but I was worried she realized she was walking into a trap. And while we’d made arrangements to keep Presley out of the scene when Ashby and I finally did meet, there was no plan in place should another woman who would instantly interfere walk into the middle of things. It felt like karmic retribution for all the shitty things I’d ever done when I caught sight of Kody pulling into the parking lot of the diner across the street from a motel, hours and hours before she was even normally awake.

I turned my head away from the redhead who was openly flirting with me as I stalled from taking her into a motel room, toward the furious blonde who was marching toward me with murder in her eyes. A chill shot up my spine as my name rang out through the parking lot.

“Shot Caldwell, I’m going to kill you!”

There was no stopping her as she marched toward me. I was sure if Kody took a second to think rationally she would recognize the redhead as Ashby Grant. Everyone in Presley’s life had been briefed on what the woman looked like, and even with the drastic cosmetic changes, she was still fairly recognizable. Only when Kody was angry, she acted first and thought things through much later.

My head jerked to the side as her palm smacked across my cheek, drawing a shocked and clearly delighted sound from the woman across from me. I was sure both Hill and Case were getting a good laugh from where they were monitoring the situation in a nearby room. The microphone they’d attached to one of the rivets that dotted my cut was meant to pick up the smallest sound and was designed to grab anything incriminating Ashby might say. They were planning on taking the woman into custody today regardless, but everyone was holding out hope I could get her on tape admitting that she murdered Presley’s mother as well as Conrad Lawton. It wasn’t the way I would go about things if this was fully club business, but I felt like my hands were tied. If I dealt with things the way I wanted, the problem of taking Ashby out of Presley’s life forever would be solved, but there was no doubt Presley would then risk losing me as well. There was no way I wouldn’t be the prime suspect if the awful woman disappeared suddenly, so for the time being I was pretending to be law-abiding. However, Kody’s sudden appearance might flush the whole manufactured scenario down the drain.

I rubbed my stinging cheek and met Kody’s glare with one of my own.

She looked at the redhead, angry smoke practically coming out of her ears. I didn’t need Kody’s drama on top of trying to keep my own emotions in check. I stopped Kody from lunging at the woman by my side, just barely, and bit back a litany of swear words.

“Knock it off, Kody.” I barked